South Dakota may not be the first place that comes to mind for world class climbing, but few places are blessed with the amount of varied and classic climbing present in the Black Hills. The Needles in the southern hills is host to runout face climbing on impressively skinny spires, the largest of which can be 3-4 pitches long. Mt Rushmore is home to hundreds of well protected sport routes, and perhaps has the best concentration of memorable, high quality 5.6-5.9 sport routes on earth. Old Baldy near Mt Rushmore is the premier bouldering area in the hills - spectacular enough to inspire a climbing movie.
Moving north, the granite fades away to limestone canyons and the odd chunks of sandstone. Falling Rock near Rapid City provides a nice pump on vertical edgy limestone. The Rock Maze along Nemo Road has juggy steep sandstone bouldering, and few crowds. Rapid City sports good bouldering and toproping on sandstone outcrops in the center of town. The crown jewel of the northern hills is Spearfish Canyon, which has a huge concentration of high quality sport routes in the 5.10 - 5.13 range in a lovely canyon. In the winter, Spearfish Canyon has a number of good ice climbing routes as well.
This is a nice solid 5.9 which is consistent and fun. The Bottom third is blocky/oververtical with big holds. The middle gets thin with nice little crimps. When in doubt, (you'll know it when you get there)go left even though there are temptations to the right. The distinct crux is at about halfway. The cracks at the bottom are protectable with nuts or small cams and is one variation to W.A.S.P. The bolted route "pollinator" about...[more]
Ernie, I've got a mint copy of that book. I'll take a look tonight, and see what is up with those routes. I've heard there are some good lines back there.
Cool place, but I never got to do any real climbing, because by the time we would be ready to go thunder showers would start. I hope to go back some day.
I'm a "newbie" climber (5.10a/V2-3) from Wisconsin and am tenatively planning a springbreak trip to SD for some TR or Sport climbing. We are thinking the blackhills area.
Does anyone have any recommendations on areas with high concentrations of 5.8 to 5.11 bolted routes? Maybe even some good places to practice multi-pitch? I plan on doing some in-depth research on the area as well, but this site has been really good to me in the past. Also some Mountain biking in the area would be awesome.
The Rushmore area along Hwy 244 has the highest concentration of moderate bolted climbs. The South Seas, Marker, and Chopping Block areas all have high quality routes under 5.9. Not sure if Devil's Lake is your home crag, but the ratings will be a bit weird at first. Waves,(5.8, many variations) in South Seas, is a classic 2 pitch route with a sweet summit. Most of the routes tend to be 1 pitch, but can pack a punch in 30+ feet!
If you head out there, find a copy of the Vernon Phinney guide book. It's a bit old, but will get you to the routes.
Horribly, another Black Hills legend has fallen. Loretta Muehl was REAL. She was one of the most talented people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. I knew her as an incredible artist,teacher and sailor. I only new Loretta for thirteen years but her generosity and kindness were unequaled and her views on life constantly entertained me. If you are a frequent visitor to the hills you have undoubtedly heard "Renn Fenton" stories. I would like to quickly share a "Loretta" story. As I said earlier Loretta was real and my favorite example of this was the plaque that she kept on her desk at school that read "what you think of me is none of my business". My only solace in this tragedy is knowing that she is with her beloved Paul now. Loretta, thanks for all of the good times, you will be missed more than you will ever know. Love,
Yo Fellas, Just got back from El Salto! As always a good time, with friends and tufas. Graig I hear ya, I just thought you could cut the guy some slack. As for the Blake Comparison, your right. Its different, after all the back of your hand touches the rock and we all know thats not real climbing, yeah right. Anyway, all yall keep safe and keep crankin. PS Miah if you need any beta or help with El Gigante, just let me know and I will see what I can do for ya. I hear this is a proud adventerous route. Nos Vemos
I'd be psyched on anything you have to offer on El Gigante. It's only about 12 hours from here. With everything going on I'd like to head down in early May. It sounds like an amazing place have you been?
In 1967 Peter Cleveland led Superpin (5.10d or 5.11 X) which at the time was arguably one of the boldest climbs in the country. The story of how Cleveland send belayer Ron Cox out to the road so he could view the success and not the failure (death fall) is a classic in the history of North American rock climbing. It is well documented in Pat Ament's book "Wizards of Rock".
I do not know the exact date in 1967 so perhaps the 40 year mark has come and gone.
Cleveland went on to put up very hard climbs at Devils Lake (Wisconsin). According to Ament in 1967 or 1968 Peter did a top rope ascent of "Death Lead 2000" (unrated) but possibly America's first 5.13. In 1968 Cleveland put up "Bagatelle" 5.12, a true Devils Lake testpiece.
Cleveland still lives here in Baraboo and can be seen cragging at the lake and still "pullin down hard".
Congratulations and Happy Anniversary to Peter. (Perhaps this could be mentioned at the upcoming Pumpfest 2007 in the Hills)
Sorry, off topic...Does anybody know how to get ahold of Pete Delannoy? I went to grad school with him in the 1980's in Boulder and haven't seen him for years. I saw him mentioned in an article in Climbing and it inspired me to look him up. chris dunn, bigsky@commspeed.net
Check out the profile of the Herb and Jan at the end of the new Climbing. They've been getting lots of exposure in Climbing, Alpinist, and NPR. It's nice to see some Black Hills explorers/icons getting recognition. Pretty soon they'll be wearing shades and signing autographs!
The BHCC is sponsoring a FUN EVENT (as opposed to serious) Bouldering Competition and climbers gathering and pot luck at the Athletic Club on Sheridan Lake Drive on Saturday, January 19th. Bring your own pads if you have them. We will have door prizes and other swag. Free for BHCC members, $5 everyone else. Starts at 4 pm with the competition ending at 6:30. Pot luck begins at 7:00 pm, We will also have a very short coalition meeting to vote on next years Board of Directors. Everyone out by 8 pm. In addition to the Chili provided by the Athletic Club, the BHCC will be providing BEER! Remember that this is a POT LUCK, so bring your favorite side dish.
Hello all. I have a bunch of old climbing footage from the Canyon and Baldy that I've been converting to digital. I thought I would throw some of the more interesting stuff onto YouTube. The digital conversion kind of sucks, but I figured there might be a few of you out there that would be psyched to see it. So far, I only have a couple of vids up; one of me on Gale Force (13a) and one of Jeremiah on F5 (12d/13a) at the Thunderhead. I'll continue to post more videos as I get the time. The link for Gale Force is as follows, and I think you can then find the other videos through my username, Sidekickstinky. Hope you enjoy!
The Dahl Mountain Culture Festival 2008 kicks off on Friday 4/18/08 with a reception for the photo exhibit at the Journey Museum. The annual showing of the Banff Film Festival World Tour will be in Rapid City on 4/20 and 4/21. For a full list of events going on the rest of the month check out: http://www.thedahl.org/dahlmountain/index.htm
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